Keep Hoping Machine Running (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thefourthvine) wrote2004-12-02 02:49 am
thefourthvine) wrote2004-12-02 02:49 am
Entry tags:
Tell Me How to Celebrate, Part 1: the Slashiest Fandom
I'm about to ask an important question, maybe the critical question of fandom.
What is the slashiest fandom of them all?
Think you know? Tell me in the comments, and please provide examples.
Or read on, and I will tell you what provoked the question. Basically, it was the juxtaposition of two things: vids and a video game. Let's consider them in order, shall we?
See, I've been on a sort of vid-watching kick lately (in the same sense that the Trainspotting boys were on a sort of heroin kick). And one of my secret shames is an adoration of the "four minutes of the slashiest moments in this particular fandom" subgenre, aka the Slash Highlights vid; I love these, especially when I don't know the canon, which is most of the time. Jack pushes Daniel's glasses up his nose. Blair and Jim make breakfast together. Starsky and Hutch strip. Wesley feeds Angel from his arm. And my once-cold heart just melts. When I first started watching vids, these Slash Highlights ones astonished me. I kept thinking, did the creators know what they were doing? Did the actors come from some distant country that has no concept of personal space? And are those two guys just going to fuck right there on screen or what?
It was at this point that I encountered a bunch of Highlander Slash Highlights vids, and in particular this one scene where a short-haired guy (Methos?) walks into a room and sees or is introduced to a long-haired guy (Duncan?). And Methos checks him out. I mean, obviously, visibly, and with no other possible explanation for his actions, at least not that I can see. And then he smiles, and it is, in my considered opinion, an "Oh, yeah, I'm going to love fucking this guy" smile. It's the sort of scene that makes you turn to your Best Beloved, assuming your Best Beloved is watching the vid with you, and say, "Did I - did he - oh my god, did he?" To which your Best Beloved responds, through almost uncontrollable giggles, "Totally. Oh, God, totally. Gay! Gay! Gay!"
So I started wondering how many other fandoms have these moments, and which fandom has the most.
And then the Best Beloved and I got hold of Shadow Hearts: Covenant, a Playstation 2 game that easily takes the title Slashiest Video Game of All Time away from the previous title holder, which was the original Shadow Hearts game. In SH: C, you collect - seriously - gay porn to get a flaming tailor to make dresses for a doll. And you can see the gay porn, mind you, in the inventory screen. You have a party member who is a vampire professional wrestler who wears a butterfly mask and who is apparently conducting an intense UST-laden relationship with his teacher. You have character interactions that can only be described as "like the DCU, if all the writers got hit by pink kryptonite." Really, there's not a single hour of the game that isn't imbued with slashy slashiness. And that includes the slashiest cut scene I have ever beheld in all my born days, a scene so slashy that the BB and I have held on to the save right before it so we can watch it over and over, laughing like loons every time.
Yuri, the star of both Shadow Hearts games, is in a bar in Southampton. In walks a Mystery Man with muscles and a swirling cape and a dangerously tailored uniform. Yuri is transfixed. He doesn't just cruise Mystery Man, he doesn't just check out every inch of MM's body - he quite literally cannot tear his eyes away. Then MM turns around and proves to be a man Yuri knows of old: Kato. Kato makes it clear that the fascination is mutual. They have a conversation that is full of references to the lovely time Yuri and Kato spent in Shanghai, including the pleasures they experienced then and the loneliness they've experienced since. They make an appointment to meet later. "I'm staying in this hotel," Kato says. "Come by any time. I hope to see you soon." Later, Yuri meets Kato in his hotel room (and there's only one double bed in there, and every other bed in the hotel is occupied, and yet Yuri stays somewhere that night); they have another intense conversation, and the screen goes dark. The next morning, Yuri rubs his ass and says, "I think I need a doctor." I can't really tell you more without explaining the whole story of the game, but trust me: there is so much slash in this cut scene that boys have been known to turn bisexual just from watching it.
In short, Shadow Hearts: Covenant is the motherlode of slash. Surely, I thought when I first encountered it, surely there is no fandom as slashy as this game?
So I ask you: is there? If so, what is that fandom? And what makes it so insanely slashy? Tell me. Convince me. Make me clap my hands because I believe in fairies.
I'm hoping that this will help me do my 111th post. Because that post should be a celebration of this LJ's core values. (Slash. And fandom. Also, slash.)
-The Evidence: Vid Recs, Because, After All, This Is a Recs LJ-
Want to see some slashy moments in the flesh? I can't promise that these are the slashiest vids in their fandoms, but they do contain most of the scenes I mention above. And some others that are equally ohmygodtheirloveissoobvious.
Stargate, Jack/Daniel: "Let's Hear It," by Relic 1979, has Jack pushing up Daniel's glasses and a bunch more; you can download it from Relic's website.
Highlander, Methos/Duncan (I think): "Just Like You," by Luminosity, features the "I'm going to love fucking this guy" bit. You can find it at Luminosity's website.
Angel, Angel/Wes: "If It's Hurting You" contains the Wes-feeding-Angel scene, and "Completely Pleased" contains a whole bunch of other Angel/Wes-ishness. They're both by Charmax, and they can be found at Bronze Ambition.
Starsky and Hutch, Starsky/Hutch: "Mighty Fine," by Kassidy Rae, shows the guys stripping, together, happily, and at some length, for reasons best known to themselves. It can be downloaded from her website.
Multifandom: "Dirty World," by Diana Williams, has great slashy moments from a bunch of fandoms. You can download it at her website; that site only features her newest vids for downloading, though, so eventually you will have to order a hard copy to get this one.
Multifandom: "Wouldn't It Be Nice," by Laura Shapiro, features another cross-fandom parade of slash. To get the vid, you'll need to email Laura for the password to her website, so the link is for that.
What is the slashiest fandom of them all?
Think you know? Tell me in the comments, and please provide examples.
Or read on, and I will tell you what provoked the question. Basically, it was the juxtaposition of two things: vids and a video game. Let's consider them in order, shall we?
See, I've been on a sort of vid-watching kick lately (in the same sense that the Trainspotting boys were on a sort of heroin kick). And one of my secret shames is an adoration of the "four minutes of the slashiest moments in this particular fandom" subgenre, aka the Slash Highlights vid; I love these, especially when I don't know the canon, which is most of the time. Jack pushes Daniel's glasses up his nose. Blair and Jim make breakfast together. Starsky and Hutch strip. Wesley feeds Angel from his arm. And my once-cold heart just melts. When I first started watching vids, these Slash Highlights ones astonished me. I kept thinking, did the creators know what they were doing? Did the actors come from some distant country that has no concept of personal space? And are those two guys just going to fuck right there on screen or what?
It was at this point that I encountered a bunch of Highlander Slash Highlights vids, and in particular this one scene where a short-haired guy (Methos?) walks into a room and sees or is introduced to a long-haired guy (Duncan?). And Methos checks him out. I mean, obviously, visibly, and with no other possible explanation for his actions, at least not that I can see. And then he smiles, and it is, in my considered opinion, an "Oh, yeah, I'm going to love fucking this guy" smile. It's the sort of scene that makes you turn to your Best Beloved, assuming your Best Beloved is watching the vid with you, and say, "Did I - did he - oh my god, did he?" To which your Best Beloved responds, through almost uncontrollable giggles, "Totally. Oh, God, totally. Gay! Gay! Gay!"
So I started wondering how many other fandoms have these moments, and which fandom has the most.
And then the Best Beloved and I got hold of Shadow Hearts: Covenant, a Playstation 2 game that easily takes the title Slashiest Video Game of All Time away from the previous title holder, which was the original Shadow Hearts game. In SH: C, you collect - seriously - gay porn to get a flaming tailor to make dresses for a doll. And you can see the gay porn, mind you, in the inventory screen. You have a party member who is a vampire professional wrestler who wears a butterfly mask and who is apparently conducting an intense UST-laden relationship with his teacher. You have character interactions that can only be described as "like the DCU, if all the writers got hit by pink kryptonite." Really, there's not a single hour of the game that isn't imbued with slashy slashiness. And that includes the slashiest cut scene I have ever beheld in all my born days, a scene so slashy that the BB and I have held on to the save right before it so we can watch it over and over, laughing like loons every time.
Yuri, the star of both Shadow Hearts games, is in a bar in Southampton. In walks a Mystery Man with muscles and a swirling cape and a dangerously tailored uniform. Yuri is transfixed. He doesn't just cruise Mystery Man, he doesn't just check out every inch of MM's body - he quite literally cannot tear his eyes away. Then MM turns around and proves to be a man Yuri knows of old: Kato. Kato makes it clear that the fascination is mutual. They have a conversation that is full of references to the lovely time Yuri and Kato spent in Shanghai, including the pleasures they experienced then and the loneliness they've experienced since. They make an appointment to meet later. "I'm staying in this hotel," Kato says. "Come by any time. I hope to see you soon." Later, Yuri meets Kato in his hotel room (and there's only one double bed in there, and every other bed in the hotel is occupied, and yet Yuri stays somewhere that night); they have another intense conversation, and the screen goes dark. The next morning, Yuri rubs his ass and says, "I think I need a doctor." I can't really tell you more without explaining the whole story of the game, but trust me: there is so much slash in this cut scene that boys have been known to turn bisexual just from watching it.
In short, Shadow Hearts: Covenant is the motherlode of slash. Surely, I thought when I first encountered it, surely there is no fandom as slashy as this game?
So I ask you: is there? If so, what is that fandom? And what makes it so insanely slashy? Tell me. Convince me. Make me clap my hands because I believe in fairies.
I'm hoping that this will help me do my 111th post. Because that post should be a celebration of this LJ's core values. (Slash. And fandom. Also, slash.)
-The Evidence: Vid Recs, Because, After All, This Is a Recs LJ-
Want to see some slashy moments in the flesh? I can't promise that these are the slashiest vids in their fandoms, but they do contain most of the scenes I mention above. And some others that are equally ohmygodtheirloveissoobvious.
Stargate, Jack/Daniel: "Let's Hear It," by Relic 1979, has Jack pushing up Daniel's glasses and a bunch more; you can download it from Relic's website.
Highlander, Methos/Duncan (I think): "Just Like You," by Luminosity, features the "I'm going to love fucking this guy" bit. You can find it at Luminosity's website.
Angel, Angel/Wes: "If It's Hurting You" contains the Wes-feeding-Angel scene, and "Completely Pleased" contains a whole bunch of other Angel/Wes-ishness. They're both by Charmax, and they can be found at Bronze Ambition.
Starsky and Hutch, Starsky/Hutch: "Mighty Fine," by Kassidy Rae, shows the guys stripping, together, happily, and at some length, for reasons best known to themselves. It can be downloaded from her website.
Multifandom: "Dirty World," by Diana Williams, has great slashy moments from a bunch of fandoms. You can download it at her website; that site only features her newest vids for downloading, though, so eventually you will have to order a hard copy to get this one.
Multifandom: "Wouldn't It Be Nice," by Laura Shapiro, features another cross-fandom parade of slash. To get the vid, you'll need to email Laura for the password to her website, so the link is for that.
If I were closer
But yes, Highlander, particualrly after MEthos entered the pictures...it was entirely the fandom that tripped me up totally and I didn't even know about fanfiction or fandom at the time...
Re: If I were closer
I've never seen either version of S&H, but I suspect I'll be watching the movie of S&H very soon. And the few TV S&H vids I've seen have made it *abundantly* clear that those guys spent way more time hugging and crying and stripping and dancing and hanging out together (drunk and sober) than any two entirely straight guys could.
Pros is tougher, though; the vids I've seen for that don't really show much in the way of slash. Looks to me like the show was a lot grittier, for one thing, and most vids seem to concentrate on that. Not that grit cannot produce slashy moments, because it so totally can. Just - not in the Pros vids I've seen.
Highlander, on the other hand, seems so slashy in vids that the only question is whether Methos's love is requited or not; I've seen vids making cases for both. (Methos is the short-haired one, right?) And what is the *deal* with all those scenes where one of the guys has a sword to the other guy's neck? I mean, I've seen the Highlander movie, so I know what the head-lopping is about, but - these guys are friends, yes?
Still and all. Slashy as hell, and you are not the first person I've met who found the slash through Highlander. Perhaps "slash conversion ratio" should be a factor in determining the slashiest fandom.
Re: If I were closer
The entire movie is structured like a romantic comedy, complete with a meet-cute, melodramatic break-up (with slow-motion memories of the two frolicking on the beach in rainbow sweatshirts) and touching reunion. No. Really. So it's like a romanti-buddy comedy. Will Ferrell has a hilarious cameo as a very, very sketchy inmate who requests S&H to put on a show (no...two dragons) in exchange for information. Also. A locker room scene that involves showers, a lack of clothing, and the line "those are hand towels." All done very tongue-in-cheek with total consciousness of Teh Gay. The best thing is...as
Highlander. Oh Highlander. I've seen exactly one episode of the canon (though I can tell you that Methos - yes, the short-haired one - can be Sex on Legs in a way that reminds me of a taller, British, brunette version of Callum Keith Rennie), but the vids and the fandom suckered me in far too quickly. As for the penises - ahem - swords getting wielded all over the place? Think of them as equivalent to the cars in The Fast and the Furious. :P
Methos and Duncan have a rather up and down, vaguely antagonistic, but always gaygaygay relationship that involves sweaty sparring, bucketloads of angst, Four Horsemen (not quite what you think, but involving a member of this pairing on a pale horse in the distant past - it comes back to bite him in the ass), and much pithy snark. Fandom tends toward long, wonderfully angsty epics, an overabundance of (probably) canon historical pieces, and many clever AUs. And smut. Hot smut. Go forth to
Re: If I were closer
I've added the S&H movie to my Netflix queue. If I suddenly disappear, you'll know what happened - the gay killed me. Because that is the gayest gay thing ever, sounds like, except for potentially the show. My question with these things is always and forever - did they know what they were filming? Obviously the movie S&H people did, but the TV show folks? Or did they just think straight men actually act that way? I doubt I'll ever know the answer, exactly, but I will never cease to contemplate that.
And Highlander. OK, I'll admit it; every attempt I've made on this fandom, I've rebounded off it. I'm beginning to think a) I'm reading the wrong stories or b) there are no right stories for a person who doesn't know the canon at all (beyond multiple viewings of the movie, which for various reasons I hardly understood). But you apparently slipped into it effortlessly with minimal canon, so - perhaps the problem here is me.
Can you tell me a couple of the stories you read first? If you got them, maybe I will, too. And I've seen loads of vids since my last sortie into Highlander, so - who knows?
Re: If I were closer
*blush*
I blame my inherent laziness for the lurking. I have managed to acquire incredible amounts of sloth; sometimes I look back on myself in awe at utterly uncompelled I am to ... do anything. However, when my interest is piqued, I become (as you can see) annoying gabby. :)
On the question of "how the fuck can they not know about Teh Gay?", usually total, blithe ignorance appeals to me (the adventures of Sub and Dom - as you very accurately named them - with their shiny, fast cars and eye fucks, are endlessly hysterical). It's sort of "found slash;" it has the trappings of a real-life romance in that it's not an artificial construction made to attract viewers or ratings (well, that's going a little deep for a movie like F & F, but you get the idea) but a subtle subtexty discovery. Starsky and Hutch (movie) works because it's tongue-in-cheek, but generally the elephant in the living room scenario is much more entertaining.
Now, Highlander is a fandom that I sort of peripherally knew about and avoided for a long time because I was too lazy (here we go again) to familiarize myself with canon. Duncan (long-hair) was the main character, and unconsistently appealing (sometimes hot; sometimes not) to me. Then
(As for the movie...never mention it again. Okay, it has a weird craptastic charm, but really. I think half the fandom hasn't even seen it, and it's almost its own separate canon from the TV series, which has its fair share of cheese, but compensates with slightly, only slightly, more coherent storylines and much more attractive characters. There's hardly any moviefic out there; if Connor appears in a fic, it's usually in relation to younger relative Duncan.
Fic recs are in Part II, because I got too talky for LJ to handle. :P
Part II
http://www.strangeplaces.net/torch/goingforth.html
Going forth by day by torch - Lovely vignette that's a weirdly good reflection of the show's tone by a consistently good author. Excellent characterization, and just the right balance of gore, heroics and humor. Gen.
http://yearningvoid.net/julad/freshest.html
The Freshest and the Best by Julad - Unabashedly cute with eel, ex-flings and grumpiness. The time setting isn't very typical of fandom (it's also missing the requisite 2 tons of angst), but the characterization is absolutely spot on. Light slash.
The more typical longer pieces and angst-ridden epics require a little more knowledge of canon (the
http://bifictionalbedlam.slashcity.net/shrift/highlander.html
Shrift's Highlander fic. By virtue of being written by Shrift, it's all pretty good. I Know You and Swing It Low are good places to start for scorching hot...everything and Shrift's usual graceful prose. After you've familiarized yourself with the Horsemen Arc and the subsequent double quickening (someone else in your comments described it as the the "gayest gay orgasmic moment ever;" they were right), its dizzying, shifting narrative and intuitive characterization make for some damn good episode-fic.
http://mediafans.org/rachael/highlander/revenant/index.html
Revenant by Rachael Sabotini and Macgeorge. Plotty, violent, and occasionally creepy. A fully fleshed quasi-detective story with broodiness and self-sacrifice. Plus, wonder of wonders, a believable OFC.
http://www.wordsmiths.net/MacGeorge/Under/brothers1.html
Brothers Under Skin by Macgeorge. An slight AU of the Horsemen Arc (this one arc has probably inspired more fic than everything else combined). I hesite to rec this because of the non-con, but it successfully skates the line between being gratuitous and contributing to the story as a whole. This fic fully illuminates some of Highlander's (both canon and fandom) darkest points with some twisty, unhealthy relationships, plenty of distrust and angsty, and disturbingly hot scenes involving ambiguous consent and mind games. Very, very well done, and ultimately, pretty satisfying. It's worth it to check out the rest of MacGeorge's work. It tends toward the dark and The Angsty, but it has consistently excellent writing and a few lighter points.
Happy reading! Alert me if I've managed to complete the vid's job of sucking you into this fandom. :P